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People have spoken

Last Tuesday the people of the nation spoke clearly and quite eloquently. They said they wanted a voice in their own lives and destinies…they wanted democracy and not some system where decisions are based on the power of wealth. They said that the ordinary citizen would not be ignored or shuffled off to the fringes. The working class stepped up, the young stepped up, the poor stepped up, minorities stepped up and women stepped up, as did many others, to say that people are more important and trump money, wealth and profit.

I was inspired. I had been concerned that people were not going to see through the charade of manipulation and half-truths dominating much of the media. I was concerned that too many would be intimidated into powerlessness by the massive financial resources poured into the campaigns. I should not have been concerned. People saw through the rhetoric and were pushed too far and angered by the blatant attempts at manipulation and voter suppression. The ordinary American citizen stood up and was counted.

Now those same citizens have to finish the work. Big money lost this round, but will simply regroup and find other, more devious, ways to corrupt the democratic process. We must get big money out of our political process.

We must insist that those who have benefited the most, financially, from the system we have all built together, rejoin our community and go back to the old ways of sharing the increases in productivity with the workers as they did during most of the last century. We must re-establish a progressive tax system and go back to the old taxes for the wealthy, which have been reduced by more than 60 percent over the last 60 years.

I've worked at the Brainerd Dispatch with various duties since Dec. 7, 1983. Starting off as an Ad Designer and currently Director of Audience Development. The Dispatch has been an interesting and challenging place to work. I'm fortunate to have made many friends, both co-workers and customers.